Earlier in the week a friend of mine with his own shop pressed all the new wheel bearings, axle seals and the front eyelet bushing into the leaf springs. Only got to work on the car Saturday as it rained Sunday. Basically it was an afternoon of adding paint markings to the rear end and rear suspension pieces. Here’s how they turned out…
Added white paint marks to the rear shocks…
New wheel bearings pressed onto the axles…
Yellow paint markings added to the third member…looks like my third member is missing a piece where the blue dot should be added…might have to add this piece…
Yellow and white paint markings added to the rear axles…yellow = driver side, white = passenger side
new axle vent tube and lock washer…
Drive side axle tube paint marking…
Passenger side axle tube paint marking…
If the weather is nice next weekend, should be assembling and bolting everything up. I should mention I’m doing this entire restoration outdoors…
Thanks for the heads up Harry and glad to hear your E-Cat is running smooth once again. I was thinking of cleaning the driveshaft up first than getting it rebuilt with new U-Joints, etc, as the driveshaft is completely original but will definitely go that extra bit and have it balanced. May I ask which shop you took yours too? Was it an overall good experience? I will have to check them out as I will be wanting to have this work completed sometime in the next month or so. I’m from North Delta, not to far from you. Cheers.
Looks great Steve. Now, since I see you have an eye for details, the original bolts for the carrier bearing retainer are blackened and have a “castleated” look to them with 6 little indents in the heads (but they really aren’t castleated). The yellow cad bolts you used, while nice, are not correct. Just my $.02, good on 'ya for doing such a nice job.
Thanks for the expertise. I wasn’t 100% sure if those bolt heads were correct looking or not. I checked out NPD website and noticed these bolts you speak of. I got them added to the NPD order list for next order. Pretty sure these are the ones…
As for the axle vent tube I got her from NPD as well…
Had a good day today with putting together the rear end. Never done this before but it went together really easy and smoothly. I must say ford designed these pretty simple imo. Got pretty much everything together except for the drum brakes. That’s on the list for tomorrow. Here’s some pictures…
Factory paint markings added to rear side of leaf springs…
New hardware for mounting the rear brake bracket to the axle flange…
Light coat of clear applied to the leaf spring clamps and U bolts to prevent the bare metal from surface rusting…
Third member installed as well as axles. 9 inch 3.50 posi rear end…
I was able to finish off the drum brakes the following day after (I haven’t posted in this thread for a couple weekends). Never done drum brakes before but after doing these I’ve got the hang of it now. Also installed the E-brake cables as well.
new springs, shoes & hardware…
Older hardware that went through a 15 minute sand and paint job…
Question…how does one unattach the rear hose at the body of the car? I played around with it, looked at the new hose I have and I can’t figure it out before the BFH comes out. I’m sure there is a simple way to remove it.
There is a retainer clip which holds the hose end in the bracket, no BFH should be needed. Just loosen and unscrew the flare nut on the hardline, then remove the clip and you’re golden.
